Louisiana Voters Consider the 1st Amendment for the TOPS Scholarship Funding

Louisiana voters will have to consider, this month, whether millions should be spent on the TOPS scholarships (in the 1^st Amendment). If it is approved, the tax would be $0.04 on a pack of cigarettes. The tax on cigarettes creates $12 million a year. Students at the University of New Orleans use the TOPS scholarship to go to school. For example, a student at UNO, Mark Granier, said, “It pays my tuition and a good bit of my dorm.” The picture shows students that are coming together to protest for the TOPS scholarship (which is the Grassroots Pathway of Action).

Senator John Alario argues that Louisiana is near the bottom of the scale when it comes to the number of people graduating, and the tax will allow more students to go to school. This will lead to more people graduating. The argument on the opposing side is that the tax will take $40 million dollars from the Millennium Trust fund. Alario argued that once the fund gets over $1.3 billion it will go to TOPS. The tax was added in the 1^st amendment when Governor Bobby Jindal voted for a renewal for the tax because it was about to expire the next year. The decision has not been made on this argument, but it will be decided on October 22.

This is based off the article: http://www.fox8live.com/news/local/story/Voters-to-consider-constitutional-amendment-for/Arm_vvh74k-h82QufoxuNQ.cspx

Obama calls on Congress to Quickly Pass his "American Jobs Act"

For many years the nation has been facing the big issue of unemployment. Last Thursday, President Obama delivered a speech to the nation, and in the speech he spoke about how the good of the nation is more important than the political benefits. Throughout the night, he is faced with mixed responses from Congress. Some Republicans feel that a compromise should be done to help solve the huge issue of unemployment but others feel that it is not going to work. For the most part, Democrats are very supportive of the plan that President Obama wants to create. Lastly, both parties and the President are concerned about the low approve ratings that they are being faced with.

President Obama really wants to be viewed in a good way. By President Obama proposing this act, it was showing that he was hanging a lantern on his problem. As learned in Hardball, when hanging a lantern on your problem it means that you’re going to fix whatever is not going the way it is supposed to be rather than waiting for someone else to come along and fix it. President Obama is doing just that because he created this proposal about unemployment and presented it to Congress, hoping that they will see what benefits will come out of it. Not all of Congress is satisfied with the proposal so the President got mixed reactions. Also, another idea that comes into mind when looking at the US government is checks and balances and separation of power. These two concepts come into play because the President can’t just go about passing this bill without having a majority vote in Congress. Also, the President isn’t allowed have all of the power in the country so he has to make sure that he includes Congress in his decisions. Lastly, congress is in a tough spot right now because only 12% of the country is satisfied with the job that they’re doing. So if the Republicans agree to this proposal, than it will raise the percentage of people who like what Congress is doing for the nation.

Link to video and article: http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/09/08/obama.jobs.plan/index.html?iref=obnetwork